Cape man pleads not guilty to gun charges

Thursday

Jul 31, 2008 at 2:00 AM

BARNSTABLE — Looking frail and unable even to look up from his wheelchair, Kenneth Webster Jr. pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that he amassed an arsenal of more than 50 weapons on his secluded, squalid property in Marstons Mills overlooking Mill Pond.

HILARY RUSS

BARNSTABLE — Looking frail and unable even to look up from his wheelchair, Kenneth Webster Jr. pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that he amassed an arsenal of more than 50 weapons on his secluded, squalid property in Marstons Mills overlooking Mill Pond.

Barnstable District Court Judge W. James O'Neill ordered Webster, 44, held on $50,000 cash bail on 10 counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and one count of illegally possessing ammunition. Prosecutors requested, and were granted, that bail of $10,000 on a previous case against Webster be revoked.

The massive cache of guns, knives and ammo — a .50-caliber handgun and .50-caliber sniper rifle, sawed-off shotguns, high-powered assault rifles, an inert bomb, throwing knives, bayonets and more than 1,000 live rounds, according to police and prosecutors — was seized when Barnstable police raided his house at 3640 Falmouth Road on Tuesday after arresting him at his parents' home on Wakeby Road earlier in the day.

His mother and an unidentified woman, who both looked stunned, declined to comment at court. "We're speechless," said a third woman, who said she was a relative.

Before this month, Webster had no criminal record in Massachusetts, said defense attorney Brian Roman of North Attleboro.

But Webster's life hasn't been free of trouble. He graduated from Barnstable High School in 1982, and two years later, he married a woman seven years his senior. He was a mechanic, and she was a cashier. The two lived in Teaticket, but in 1988 she filed for a temporary restraining order, which was later lifted.

In 1991, she filed for divorce, citing cruel and abusive behavior. He had knocked out two of her teeth and was ordered to pay her dental bills, according to court documents.

Around that same time, he was working on a car when it fell on top of him, injuring his spine and permanently disabling him, Roman said.

Webster claimed he was once a provisional officer with the Falmouth police, Roman said.

Falmouth police Capt. William McManamin, who has been with the department for more than three decades and supervises summer police officers, has no memory of Webster, Falmouth Police Chief Anthony Riello said

Webster, who is unemployed, inherited about $80,000 from friend Charles Eldridge after Eldridge died in December 2006 at the age of 77.

Webster lived with Eldridge at the sprawling property where the cache of guns was found. The men were friends and before he died. Eldridge, a mason, sold the property to Webster and Webster's second wife for less than $100 in 2005, according to court documents.

By then, Webster's new marriage wasn't going well, either. In September 2003, he had married a home health care worker from Plymouth — a fourth marriage for her. Shortly after they wed, she was listed as living in Prentiss, Maine, and had filed a restraining order against him in that state.

But by February of 2004, he filed for a divorce, which was later dismissed, according to court papers.

She has now filed for divorce instead. She asked for money and one of the many vehicles on the property — specifically, the 2006 Mustang.

A judge ruled July 21 that she wouldn't get any alimony or money for attorney's fees.

About a month before, she received a restraining order against Webster.

It was that order that sparked the eventual discovery of the gun stockpile — when police served him papers on July 1, he behaved strangely and refused to show his hands or obey police commands. Officers found a loaded 9mm Derringer pistol in his front pocket — after he told them he had no gun — and other guns, knives and more than $16,000 in cash in his car, according to court records.

After a court-ordered exam yesterday, Webster was found capable of proceeding and not to be mentally ill.

Webster's motive for building up such a massive cache was still under investigation, Barnstable Detective Sgt. John Murphy said.

"We really don't know what his intentions were," Murphy said. Webster allegedly also collected survivalist equipment, including generators, cans of gasoline and ham radios, along with the weapons.

Webster had no "sinister purposes" to his weapon collection and had not been doing anything with the items, Roman said. "He's been a respectable member of the community his entire life."

Police are also still trying to determine where and how Webster got his guns, said Barnstable Detective Lt. Sean Balcom. Webster does not have a firearms license in Massachusetts or any other state, prosecutor Matthew Kelley said in court.

The secondary investigation into how Webster got his guns could lead back to Maine, Balcom said. Webster may have used someone else's license, Balcom said, or had another person buy them for him.

Police plan to perform serial number traces on all the firearms recovered, Balcom said.

More charges are expected against Webster once police finish cataloging all the items pulled from his home. His next court date on both cases is Aug. 22.